Jennifer Talks

"I'm going to have my entire family, all my friends, everyone I work with, everybody I love at the El Cantante premiere. I'm really proud of it."

"I'm going to have my entire family, all my friends, everyone I work with, everybody I love at the El Cantante premiere. I'm really proud of it."

To get to Jennifer Lopez's palatial Long Island, New York, estate, you turn down a quiet country road and pass beneath a canopy of beech and cypress trees. As you gaze at the colonial brick mansion, it's easy to forget that the 38-year-old star has had many previous incarnations, among them J.Lo, Jenny From the Block and the curvier half of the gossip rag phenomenon that was Bennifer.

You can't help but feel that Lopez, who ditched the J.Lo moniker after she wed singer and actor Marc Anthony, is making a calculated effort to put her tabloid past behind her. Running shoes are casually tossed near a wooden bench by the back door, two chefs in white toques work quietly in the open-plan kitchen, and in the pantry, a framed black-and-white photo of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz keeps company with a framed black-and-white portrait of a giggling Lopez and her husband. But Lopez has been working to embrace another part of her past: her Latina heritage. The girl who grew up in the Bronx, the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants but not fluent herself, released her first Spanish-language album, Como Ama Una Mujer, in March. It earned her a new audience—and new respect—in the Latin community. And this month sees the release of El Cantante, a biopic of the legendary salsa singer Hector Lavoe. It is Lopez's most personal project as a producer, and she is hopeful that the movie will do for salsa what the 2005 film Walk the Line did for the music of Johnny Cash. The music in the movie is electrifying, and the volatile on-screen relationship between Lavoe (played by Lopez's real-life husband) and his wife, Puchi (played by Lopez), is equally explosive. No surprise: Lopez is, after all, a woman who knows a thing or two about failed relationships, yet she still calls herself a romantic. "You realize as you get older that the setbacks are the moments that allow you to make a transition onto the next great thing," says Lopez. Read on for more candid thoughts from the very private star.

GLAMOUR: So let's talk about El Cantante. In one scene you're dancing with Marc, and the look on your face is so vulnerable—is it easier to let down your guard around someone you're with in real life?

Jennifer Lopez: Yes. It's totally different than working with an actor you don't know, where sometimes you have great chemistry and sometimes you don't. When Marc and I work together, there's no barrier or boundary. I think that's how it is in all good relationships—you feel the most safe there. But on set, we kept it very professional: We bounced ideas off one another and treated each other like any other actor. We even had separate trailers—we gave each other our space.

GLAMOUR: It sounds like you enjoyed working with him.

JL: I think the best partner you can have is someone who makes you want to be the best form of yourself. We do that for each other; that's why we work well together. We made all these promises to each other in the beginning of the marriage, because both of us have difficult careers to manage with a partner. We don't have 9-to-5 jobs; our day could be 24 hours long if we let it. So you have to carve out your time and make your agreements: "We are going to travel with each other. If I'm working, you're not going to work. If we both have to work, we're going to make sure we keep that to a minimum."

GLAMOUR: So what drove you to make a small, indie film about a person most audiences may not know about?

JL: Whenever things got hard during filming, I would think, Why am I making this movie? And all I had to do was go back and listen to the music. The rise of salsa was such an important time in musical history, not just in Latin music but music in general, because these guys created a new sound. Even jazz greats like Miles Davis were interested in what these cats were doing. This is the first time I've really produced—I worked on Bordertown [2006], too, but this was my baby. I got the script from its inception, went through I don't know how many directors and took it through five or six years of development. So I'm really proud of it.

GLAMOUR: Has your family seen the film?

JL: They haven't yet. I'm going to have my entire family, all of my friends, everyone I work with, everyone I love at the premiere. I'm really proud of it.

GLAMOUR: At one point during the film, Hector's sister chastises your character for not speaking Spanish. I know that once upon a time, you didn't speak much if any Spanish. Did that hit close to home?

JL: It's true: I grew up speaking English. My parents moved here when they were very young, and my two grandmothers were the only people in my family who spoke Spanish. It wasn't until I did Selena [1997] that I started actively trying to learn the language. I realized I was going to have to do interviews in Spanish and didn't want to be embarrassed. I still can't say I speak it perfectly, but I speak it much better now.

GLAMOUR: My family's from Panama, and I grew up in Brooklyn. As a kid, I wanted to be somewhere else, doing something different. The movie brought it all back.

JL: It's funny, when you're home, you don't appreciate all of the things that culture's about, and when you leave home, all you want are those things that define you and make you who you are.

GLAMOUR: On another note entirely…babies. People are always asking you if you're pregnant.

JL: I know they are.

GLAMOUR: Does it get on your nerves?

JL: It's just weird. I try to look at it as that they want something exciting to happen for me so they can put it in the news. Every other week [tabloids] say I'm pregnant, and I keep telling them, "I'm not yet." I don't know what else to say.

GLAMOUR: Well, you've been married for a while now, and you have mentioned wanting children, so…

JL: People want it to go to the next level? Marc and I just saw the film Children of Men. The message of the movie was if we don't have children, there's no hope for the future. And without hope, society just goes to pieces. Maybe that's what the pregnancy rumors are about—hope for the future.

GLAMOUR: It's hard to believe that the tabloids are writing about your alleged pregnancies because they believe that babies are the future.

JL: Yeah, maybe it's not that deep. Maybe it's more about seeing two people together and wanting to know if it's real. A lot of the time, having a baby solidifies that [image]—"Oh, this is real, they're having a child together"—you know what I mean? But I do have four stepchildren—Marc has three children and a stepchild—so my life is very rich with family and children.

GLAMOUR: So that takes the pressure off, because he's not desperate?

JL: Not desperate, no.

GLAMOUR: I had a friend who had a child from a previous relationship. She got married, and her husband said to her, "I know you have a child, but I want you to have my child."

JL: [Raises an eyebrow and smiles.] You always want, when you love someone like you said, to have that extension of yourself. It's interesting. [Smiles again.]

GLAMOUR: OK—your friendship with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Is it true you go on double dates with them?

JL: It's funny, because when you get married, you do find other couples to hang out with. We have more couple friends than ever. I think that's because we're a solid couple ourselves. Marc really hit it off with Tom—they just got close.

GLAMOUR: And you're also famous for doing karaoke, I hear?

JL: I have, but it's not a thing. I like singing Alicia Keys' "Fallin'" and old Lisa Lisa songs. My friend Leah [Remini] and I like to freestyle. We're both New York girls!

JL: My own style influences have to do with where I grew up, in the Bronx—I was wearing this when I was 12 years old, and I still like to wear bangles and big hoops! I'm also influenced by all the places I've traveled since then: I've been to Hollywood and great fashion shows and seen the world. Now I have a different perspective, and I mix that up.

GLAMOUR: Who would you say are some of your style icons?

JL: I look to the women who epitomize old Hollywood glamour, like Rita Hayworth. She had a way of making sophisticated clothes look sexy without ever seeming sleazy or cheap.

GLAMOUR: Now, one of the stereotypes that persists about Latinas is that they're overtly sexy—yet lately you look more ladylike. Are you purposely toning it down to combat that stereotype?

JL: Well, six or seven years ago my midriff was always out. But as you mature, you try different things. For me, fashion is an expression of who I am right in that moment—so what you're seeing is what I'm influenced by now. My hair and makeup people and stylists have changed over the years, but they all know sometimes I want to do Marilyn, and on another day I want to do Jackie O. Though sometimes I look back and have to say, "Wow! What were we thinking there?" [Laughs.]

GLAMOUR: So who is Marc's favorite Jennifer, stylewise?

JL: He loves seeing me in a glamorous gown on the red carpet, but his favorite Jennifer is just the Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx, when my hair is kind of natural and curly and I have just a little bit of eyeliner on and big hoops and jeans.

GLAMOUR: What do you think is the sexiest thing about a woman?

JL: Confidence: It's the difference between the girl with the perfect body in a one-piece bathing suit, pulling at it and thinking she's not thin enough or doesn't have big enough boobs—and the girl who people call a bit overweight, but meanwhile, she's wearing a bikini and guys are saying, "God, she's sexy." It all has to do with how you feel about yourself—it's about projecting the attitude, I'm OK with who I am.

GLAMOUR: It's absolutely true—as women, we can feel so insecure.

JL: I was just talking about this with Victoria Beckham the other day. She said, "People would never guess you're insecure. Are you? Because I know I am." It was like she had to hear it from me. And I said, "Yeah, of course I am." She said, "But you seem so confident." And I said, "Because I am confident! It doesn't mean I don't have my moments. But you have to remember the value of your individuality—that you have something special and different to offer that nobody else can." She said, "Oh, I love hearing this. What you're saying is so great!" It was really sweet.

GLAMOUR: It means a lot to hear someone like you say you have bouts of insecurity. It's also surprising to hear that this is the kind of thing you discuss with Victoria Beckham!

JL: That's why I wanted to put it out there: Here you have a beautiful, successful woman who does her own imaging and branding and has a great family and kids—yet at times, she feels very insecure about herself. We all do.

GLAMOUR: So what is the one quality you wish you had more of?

JL: I wish I could sit still more. Even on a day off, I'll sit down and get right back up. I honestly wear myself out walking around, fixing this and fixing that. Maybe that's why I like to work so much—so I can just get to that moment where I'm like, "Whoa." I have to be super tired and knocked out to stop!

GLAMOUR: You've been through quite a bit in the past decade. If you could go back in time and give advice to your 25-year-old self, what would you tell her?

JL: "Go this way. Don't do that. You're gonna regret that later." [Laughs.] The truth is, everything that's happened was supposed to happen. That doesn't mean I don't look back and think, God, I wish I hadn't had to go through some of those things. But then I think, You know what? It didn't finish me—and look at where I am now! So I would tell her, "Always follow your heart. Sometimes it's gonna hurt—but you're going to be fine." And I am: I'm in the best place I've ever been.